James Van Der Beek caught off-guard by cancer diagnosis

James Van Der Beek has confessed to being shocked by his cancer diagnosis.

SHARE

SHARE

James Van Der Beek has been diagnosed with cancer
James Van Der Beek has been diagnosed with cancer

James Van Der Beek was stunned by his cancer diagnosis.

The 47-year-old actor was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in August, and James has now admitted to being caught off-guard by the news.

Speaking to PEOPLE, James shared: "It was just a change in bowel habits.

"I thought, I probably need to change my diet a little bit. Maybe I need to stop coffee. Maybe I need to not put cream in the coffee. And then I finally took that out of the diet, and it didn't improve, and I thought, all right, I better go get this checked out."

James was initially relaxed about the situation, assuming it would be easy to remedy.

He shared: "I felt really, really good as I was coming out of anesthesia that I had finally done it and looked into it. And as I was coming out of the haze, the gastroenterologist said - in his most pleasant bedside manner - it is cancer."

James was in "amazing cardiovascular shape" when he was diagnosed with cancer, and he's confessed to being shocked by the news.

He said: "I'm very healthy. I was in amazing cardiovascular shape.

"I tried to eat healthy as much as I could, as far as I knew at the time. Though I've since learned a lot about what actually eating healthy is."

James previously revealed that he has been "feeling good" and is remaining optimistic about the situation.

The actor - who is best known for playing Dawson Leery on the hit TV series 'Dawson's Creek' - told PEOPLE: "I have colorectal cancer. I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it."